Autoantibodies and human immunodeficiency viruses infection: a case-control study

To determine the prevalence of organ-specific and non-specific autoantibodies in HIV-infected patients.

A multicentric collaborative case-control study including 105 HIV patients and 100 sex- and age-matched HIV-negative healthy volunteers.

Antinuclear, anti-ds DNA, anti-histone, anti-Sm, rheumatoid factor(IgM), anti-beta 2 glycoprotein 1, antineutrophil cytoplasmic, anti-LKM1, anti-LCA1, anti-gastric parietal cell, antiplatelet, anti-intermediate filament, anti-mitotic spindle apparatus, anti-Golgi, anti-ribosome and anti-thyroid autoantibodies were screened in six European laboratories.

Only IgG and IgM anticardiolipin, IgG antiplatelet, anti-smooth muscle and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies were statistically more frequent in HIV patients. There was no correlation with the numbers of CD4+ cells except in the case of anti-smooth muscle antibodies. We were unable to find specific autoantibodies such as anti-ds DNA, anti-Sm, AMA, anti-LKM1, anti-LCA1 or anti-beta 2 GP1 antibodies in these patients.

Our results indicate that the autoantibody profile of HIV infections is comparable to those of other chronic viral infections. HIV does not seem to be more autoimmunogenic than other viruses.